"In the year of our Lord 1141, civil war over England's throne leaves a legacy of violence- and the murder of a knight dear to Brother Cadfael. And with gentle budstrewn May, a flood of pilgrims comes to the celebration of Saint Winifred at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, carrying with it many strange souls and perhaps the knight's killer. Brother Cadfael's shrewd eyes see all: the prosperous merchant who rings false, and angelic lame boy,...

In the sumer of 1138, war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud takes Brother Cadfael from the quiet world of his garden into a battlefield of passions, deceptions, and death. Not far from the safety of the abbey walls, Shrewsbury Castle falls, leaving its ninety-four defenders loyal to the Empress to hang as traitors. With a heavy heart, Brother Cadfael agrees to bury the dead, only to make a grisly discovery: ninety-five dead bodies lie in a...

The year is 1144--the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Maud still rages on--and Brother Cadfael is called upon to be an interpreter to the Welsh village of Saint Asaph. Cadfael is Welsh born and he welcomes the journey to his homeland as a pleasant break from his duties as a brother at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury.

A near fatal fall brings Brother Haluin to a deathbed confession heard by Brother Cadfael. A journey of expiation with Cadfael leads to many shocking discoveries and murder.

In February of the year of Our Lord 1141, men march home from war to Shrewsbury, but the captured Sheriff Gilbert Prestcote is not among them. Elis, a young Welsh prisoner, is, and he is delivered to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul to begin a tale that will test Brother Cadfael's sense of justice... and his heart. By good fortune, it seems, the prisoner can be exchanged as Sheriff Prestcote's ransom. What none expects is that good-natured...

A young man, pursued by a lynch mob, claims sanctuary just in time to save his own life. The accusation is robbery and murder - yet Brother Cadfael senses his innocence and sets out to solve yet another tangle of human passions, where love plays its inevitable part.

In the summer of 1143, two important visitors arrive at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury. Gerbert, a mighty prelate, arrives with the appropriate pomp and circumstance. But William of Lythwood comes in a coffin, returned at last from pilgrimage and accompanied by his young attendant Elave. Elave's mission is to secure a burial place for his master on the Abbey grounds, despite Williams having once been "reproved for...

Setting out for the Saint Giles leper colony outside Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has more pressing matters on his mind than the grand wedding coming to his abbey. But as fate would have it, Cadfael arrives at Saint Giles just as the nuptial party passes the colony’s gates. When he sees the fragile bride looking like a prisoner between her two stern guardians and the bridegroom—an arrogant, fleshy aristocrat old enough to be her grandfather—he...

Flood waters make it necessary to disinter the cherished bones of Saint Winifred leaving Brother Cadfael to solve the mystery of their theft and a murder at the Abbey in Shrewsbury in 1144.

When Cadfael is called upon to bury rebel soldiers, he finds one body too many and sets about trying to discover who the extra man is and who killed him.